Increasingly, customers are eschewing the time-consuming routine of travelling to purchase their shopping and/or personal and business needs. It is now common for purchases to be made by mail order, telephone and via the Internet and email. As a consequence, for goods to be received there is a marked increase in the use of postal and courier services to deliver the purchases.
The further involvement of postal services and other delivery systems is different from the traditional mode of shopping where the customer travels to purchase articles over the counter and returns using public or their own transport means. In this scenario, packing or packaging is done at the counter or before the customer leaves, after which responsibility for damage no longer resides with the seller. As most postal and courier services either limit their liability for damage to articles delivered by them or charge significant premiums for insurance against such damage, it falls to the retailer, warehouseman or company dispatching the purchase to ensure there is minimal risk of damage during transit to the customer. The term “postal” as used herein is intended as a convenient expression of all local, national and international dispatch and courier services, including drop-shipping services and terms “dispatch” and “shipping” are used interchangeably.
With the increased popularity of Internet shopping and the dispatch of ordered articles via the postal system the requirement for packaging has increased manyfold. The popularity of such websites as Amazon™ and eBay™ have increased the postal traffic of books, CDs, CDROMs and DVDs amongst others. Also with costs associated with deliveries, many machine parts and vehicle spares, including bulky and awkwardly shaped items, such as vehicle light clusters, are dispatched via courier rather than parts providers running their own delivery service, as was common in the past. Due to the vast turnover of dispatched articles and the inherent risks associated with the bulk handling of goods, there is a market requirement for sturdy containers. Additionally, as the volume of mail order catalogue business increases so to does the volume of returns. This has a severe consequence on the profitability of the mail order transaction and, where the returned article is damaged, the customer must bear responsibility for the damage. This condition of sale often has repercussions for customer relationships.
In other words, a fundamental requirement of any method of goods transportation is that the goods are not damaged during transport so that they reach their destinations in a non-damaged state.
It has been found in practice, that the packaging of articles such as bottles, machine parts and vehicle spares and similar articles having at least one dimension substantially greater than the others has presented, in terms of packaging, a significant ongoing problem. This problem manifests itself particularly in situations where the articles are packaged on a production line basis using a packaging method involving the folding of a cardboard like blank into a container for receiving an article to be packed.
Containers formed from blanks made of card and cardboard and other materials suitable for dispatch through the postal services are well known in the prior art. Generally, the containers are formed from a relatively simple blank having multiple cut-aways to define a blank having side walls separated by fold lines and one or more base and lid portions connected to one or more of the side walls by corresponding fold lines. Commonly, to construct the container, an end tab of one side wall is secured to an edge portion of another side wall and the or each base portion is folded and secured to form an open-mouthed container. When the or each article to be dispatched has been placed within the container, the or each lid portion is folded and secured. The means of securing the portions to form the container is normally selected from gluing, stapling or applying adhesive tape.
It will be appreciated that unless the container is designed to receive the specific article(s) to be dispatched, further packaging materials will be required to prevent the article(s) moving about within the container. In the packaging industry generally there is a move to obviate extraneous packaging materials and in some countries there are regulations and legislation to prevent wasteful packaging practices.
The invention is directed to overcoming some of the established disadvantages associated with prior art containers, particularly those realising a container which is adapted for encapsulating or otherwise securing one or more articles within the container to prevent damage due to movement within the container during transit to its destination.
In an attempt to obviate some of the disadvantages highlighted above, a solution suggested in the prior art is to utilise a web of lining material to secure the articles within the container.
One established solution is to place the articles for dispatch in a tray, usually of a cardboard material. The tray and articles are then wrapped by a web of plastics material which is subsequently heated to effect a shrink-wrapped package. Alternatively, the web or film is tensioned around the article(s) by folding elements of the tray to which the web is attached. This package is then placed into a pre-formed container which is finally sealed and marked for dispatch. This arrangement, however, has its own disadvantages including that, although the articles are bound together, the tray will often move sufficiently in the container to dislodge the articles from the tray. Furthermore, this arrangement does not avoid the use of unnecessary additional packaging materials and includes an extra stage in the packaging process.
Consequently, there is a perceived need to provide a container having an article retaining means which is adaptable to conform with the article or articles contained therein to minimise movement of the or each article within the container during transit.
In another solution, United Kingdom Patent No. GB 2 343 885 describes a container blank to which a sheet or web of lining material is secured. This lining material is shrink-wrappable so that articles may be placed directly into the container and secured in situ.
There has been an increasing awareness for the need for packaging to be easily recyclable and, although the general public are increasingly involved in the separation of recyclable and non-recyclable waste, where there is separation of materials required it is perceived as being simpler simply to discard the entire packaging for processing as non-recyclable waste. More recently, packaging legislation has pushed packaging manufacturers towards simpler and less obtrusive packaging use to cut down the volume of packaging material that is used for individual containers.
In the packaging industry, waste material generated during forming of a container blank adds significantly to the overall cost. For each blank having a section removed, an additional piece of waste material is produced and has to be handled or otherwise cleared from the blank forming site. The processing and/or removal of the accumulated waste, most often for recycling, increases the per unit cost of the blank.
It is known that in many instances, it is the cost of forming and preparing a container blank with appropriately positioned glue lines that is the most significant factor in the end cost of forming a shipping pack having the required article constrained therein.
It is an object of the present invention to minimise the cost of producing a container blank which can be formed into a sealed shipping pack.
It is an object of the present invention to alleviate the above disadvantages and to provide a packaging system that is wholly recyclable and has an article retaining means which is adaptable to conform with one or more articles contained therein.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for the manipulation of a carton blank to constrain at least one article therein for dispatch or storage.